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SirPsychoSquints
High crimes and misdemeanors does not mean literal violations of laws. High refers to the office the person holds. Crimes and misdemeanors is better understood as misconduct.
BrazilianSoxFan
Is this the closest to actual treason Trump ever got?
ISIS is an enemy of the state that you’re, de facto, at war with.
kneemoe
You’re probably right.
But if you can figure out who besides Erdogan benefits from this, you should write it up and get it out there because this has left seemingly everybody scratching their heads.
My guess is Putin – anything that erodes the international standingof the US, especially in that region, is to his benefit.
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Average Reds
It breaks my heart to have to write these words, but it seems fairly clear that Trump, at minimum, is an accomplice to an ongoing genocide.
Whether he was duped or had foreknowledge is almost immaterial, since we’re now seeing it play our in real time and Trump refuses to even acknowledge it.
The entirety of the Republican Party needs to be tarred and feathered as accomplices.
Dan Chipowski
His withdrawal was so precipitous, so ill-conceived, so unsupported by experts in the field, so poorly executed, and so utterly destructive and devastating to an ally, that any sane country would be openly discussing the 25th Amendment.
Curious to see how many books “Mad Dog” can sell to flag fuckers by continuing to honor his non-criticism obligations in the partisan breach.
YTF
Calling Trump inept may be the kindest thing we can say about him.
dhappy42
As horrific as the death toll resulting from Trump’s as yet inexplicable* betrayal of the Kurds may be, the damage to U.S. reputation and national security is extraordinary. Is it repairable? Will the world see Trump as an aberration, or instead as an extreme and unpredictable example of American foreign policy fecklessness?
A few quotes from a NYT news analysis illustrate the problem:
“I think many nations around the Middle East now are considering major changes in their strategic defense plans because they no longer see the United States as a reliable ally,” said Gamal Abdel Gawad Soltan, an adviser to the state-sponsored Al Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo.
“If you are someone that is a rival on the other side — you’re Iranian, Russian, Turkish, ISIS, Hezbollah — you understand that this is the time for gain,” argued Shimrit Meir, columnist for the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot.
“For the Americans, their friends are disposable,” he said. “The Americans, you look for them and they look for the closest exit. You turn around and you don’t find them[, said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a former Iraqi national security adviser.]
NYTimes: Trump’s Abrupt Shifts in Middle East Unnerve U.S. Allies
There’s also a couple of quotes from Gen. Mattis in that article, from a few months ago when Trump raised the idea of withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria, predicting the resurrection and resurgence of ISIS if the U.S. were to do so. So Trump can’t say he wasn’t warned. He knew the consequences.
So why did he do it?
Syria is (or until now, was) a tiny blip on the Trump base’s radar. It’s not like the wall, being mean to Mexicans, the Muslim travel ban or acting tough on trade, promises Trump feels obliged to keep.
So why did he do it?
Especially now, when he’s facing impeachment and can’t afford to lose the support of five or, worse, 20 Republican Senators. Republican Senate reaction has been mostly muted and mixed, but why take this risk at all and why take it now?
Speaking of risks, Trump has been lucky that no U.S. soldiers have been killed (that we know of) in the Turkish offensive. Imagine the uproar. Could Fox excuse even that?
Even if withdrawing from Syria is one of those bad ideas that’s stuck in his head that he can effectuate now that there are no “adults in the room” anymore, what’s the upside?
*I wrote “as yet inexplicable” above because there must be a reason. We just don’t know it yet. Most of the reporting so far (that I’ve seen) has been on the effect, not the cause.
Based on Trump’s past behavior, we can speculate that Erdogan bribed or blackmailed Trump, forcing a quick decision. And that the U.S. pullout from Syria has been a longstanding Putin ask and Trump promise that he’s desperate to fulfill as impeachment looms. Proving either or both of those things could be difficult, but as more and more rats flee Trump’s sinking ship, maybe not.
Reverend
Tweetbots last night were disseminating a Sputnik article from February that covered, among the things, Assad warning the Kurds that their US allies would abandon them.
geoduck no quahog
The totally obvious answer to me (not ground breaking) is that Putin is succeeding in tearing a NATO ally out of the equation. The guy is brilliant in his control of Trump. Turkey, with Erdogan, is going to dramatically wound the alliance. Trump will fulfill his assigned task of weakening Europe and America.
YTF
From the earliest days of this administration when it appeared that Trump was more than willing to test long time allies while embracing traditional threats to our country I have expressed concern over how he, and more important how our country, would be viewed on the world stage. I think our reputation is repairable for sure, but not until Trump is out of office and his successor has earned the trust that we once held in the world community. Other countries still depend on our relationship for shared military intel and economic concerns, but the level of trust has no doubt been badly damaged. Trump has no issue tweeting sensitive information that can compromise the personnel of our military as well as that of our allies and their sources. He’s also constantly threatening the economies of other countries. Just as we have allowed other countries to reestablish and rebuild their relationship with us, we will be allowed to reestablish and rebuild our relationship with them, but it is going to take time and will happen at their pace and discretion. Their trust will need to be earned.
dhappy42
I’m one of those folks who thinks 99% of voters have already made up their mind about voting for Trump or for *anyone* who runs against him and that the only thing that really matters in 2020 is turnout.
That said…
Is there a way to clearly and simply articulate what you’ve written above, that regardless of whether Trump is a traitor or stooge, he poses a huge threat to U.S. national security? This seems like a unique opportunity for Democrats to change the conventional wisdom about Republicans being the party that’s strong on defense issues and anti- terrorism.
YTF
Sort of a “He is who we thought he was.” campaign might be a way to counter the “Promises made, promises kept.” campaign that we will surely see from the re-election effort. Lay out the fears and concerns that many had leading into this presidency and for each one of those exhibit the blatant example(s) that show that concern has been realized. On a daily basis Trump beats his base over the head with his greatest hits of the wall, the economy, the military, the deep state, the greatest hoax/witch hunt in the history of the country, they’re coming for your guns, etc…There is without out doubt a counter to this to be made. It doesn’t have to be as complicated as the Meuller investigation or articles of impeachment, just lay out the lies, contradictions, examples of bad faith politics/policies that have led to where we are in the eyes of the world.
Rojava to Rock 